Vote NO, TOO HIGH in Bethel — Letter to the Editor from Bill Hillman

Report by Paula Antolini
May 3, 2018 9:48PM EDT

 

Vote NO, TOO HIGH in Bethel — Letter to the Editor from Bill Hillman

Offering only a minor adjustment after a 1,916 to 525 Too High verdict, Bethel’s “second chance budget” leaves the mill rate just about flat year to year. But, in a revaluation year; the Town Assessor reporting fully 56% of residential units experiencing an increase in assessments, “flat” just isn’t good enough.

Taking 4% more in property tax than the amount collected last year, this Town Budget is still way higher than the rate of inflation.

Many taxpayers will still suffer higher taxes. For some, there’ll be hundreds of dollars in increases. Each tax-payer needs to check their own situation.

Rejecting this budget might finally convince the Town to restore the “capital non-recurring” line in the budget back to what the Board of Selectmen first recommended, and that would be an additional reduction of $275,000 only if this budget fails on May 10th.

With that additional reduction, the mill rate would actually go DOWN (imagine that) to about 32.74, and the “typical” property would get a bill for about $30 LESS.  The savings for higher value homes would be better. The savings could be a co-pay for a doctor visit or several prescriptions, or maybe the price of food for dinner.

Ask yourself, “Who is better able to decide how to spend YOUR tax savings?” The answer is clear; you are better able to decide, and not the Town!

Give Bethel a third chance to get this right! Vote NO, Too High, once again!

 

Bill Hillman

Bethel, CT

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